Bedoni served in the Marines from 1942 to 1946 after enlisting at 16 years old when recruiters came to Tuba City, where he was attending boarding.

Up until that point, he had been encouraged by instructors not to speak the Navajo language his parents had taught him. It would be his knowledge of the language that would help him transmit coded messages and thwart enemy eavesdroppers as a Code Talker during World War II.